Friday 11 November 2016 - Norwich

Today I carried on with my "project" garden - continuing with the jobs I started last week and working on the list I made after my first visit.   It was a much nicer day today - last week it rained pretty much all the time I was there - but today was sunny, although fresh.  

 

 

 One of the first jobs I did was to saw up all the branches I'd cut down last week to get them all into black sacks.  The brown bin has not arrived yet, and I wanted to make sure that access through the side gate wasn't impeded by a forest!  

 

I also sawed down the remaining offshoot of the garden tree which makes the garden look much bigger and opens everything out now.

I also chopped down some overhanging branches from the neighbour's tree, just where it came down into Amanda's garden.  It makes everything much lighter now and I am going to experiment with some daffodil bulbs around the base of the remaining tree.

I tried to work out which way the garden faces according to the light, but I don't think I was there long enough for that.  The light was very strange, just a small block of it moving slowly around the left hand side of the garden.

 

 I recycled some old plant pots and planted up some of the forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) which I had dug up from my own garden this morning.   I then moved those pots to the "trench", firstly to try and stop doggy-digging, but also to put them out in the open where they will get more light.  I'm not sure where the plants had been placed before in the garden - I found them round by the shed - but it will be interesting to see which is the best place for sunlight.  I may need to move the pots around as an experiment for a while yet, until I'm happy with their positioning.

 

 I am currently in my first year studying for my RHS Level 2 in Horticulture and attend Easton and Otley College one evening a week for the first year, and then one evening plus one whole day a week for the second year.   This week, coincidentally, we started working on "soil" and apparently any soil that has stinging nettles in it is very good soil indeed.  After last week's cursing about the proliferation of nettles, I'm now very pleased that I have a very good canvas to work with, which was also evidenced by the size of the very fat worms that were coming up with the tree roots I was pulling up this morning.  This is good news indeed.

 

Time spent working in this garden today:  2.5 hours

Jobs completed:  sawed down remaining tree suckers; pulled up tree roots and brambles; dug up weeds; bagged up rubbish and left by back gate; cut back some mint and planted in a pot on the patio; planted forget-me-nots; rescued hellebores from their weed-encrusted pot and added some more compost; moved pots into trench and watered well.  .

Jobs for future visit:  decide what to do with hole in lawn; dig out more weeds; empty the remaining plant pots; take shears to cut grass before lawn mowing can commence again next year; buy grass seeds and sow into seed trays to make small clumps of grass to plant out in garden; dig up excess foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) from my own garden to plant in pots for interest; sow tulip and iris bulbs in pots for spring interest; sow daffodils at the base of the tree; research Helen Dillon garden which is made up of pots of plants which are moved around to avoid planting into soil; discuss benefits of water butt; decide position of compost bin and wheelie bins (currently on patio) and make small level area for these; concentrate on the area behind the bike shed and patio; split osteospermum into different pots. 

Note:  not all these jobs will be done in just one visit!

Friday 4 November 2016 - Norwich

The garden I have been working in today has become rather overgrown, leaving the owner a little overwhelmed at the amount of work there is to do in it.  When you don't know what you're doing, making a start can be really scary, so my job is to try and get the garden to a place where the owner feels happy doing the odd bit around the place.  I can then go in and do the labour intensive, more specialised work to maintain it, leaving the residents to enjoy the garden, and do the odd bit of pottering if they so wish. 

There were a number of large suckers that had come up from the tree at the bottom of the garden and they had well and truly taken root.  Some of them came up easily enough by the roots, but, for most of them, I had to use the loppers to get them down, near the base.   I've had to leave one though, as it was too big even for the loppers, so next time I return, I will take my saw with me.  My plan will be eventually to dig those roots out because they will keep throwing up shoots.  At the moment, it's all about things that can be done quickly, until more lasting solutions are found.

I managed to fill quite a number of black sacks with weeds, stinging nettles, dead grasses, and tree branches, although I will have to saw a lot of those branches down the next time to get them into bags.   The garden owner has ordered a brown bin from the local Council, but this has not yet been delivered, so the black sacks are currently lined up at the back of the house, ready to start being put into the brown bin on delivery.  Alternatively, these sacks can be taken to the local tip, a job which I'm afraid I cannot do due to waste management rules and regs. 

I've spotted some very overgrown and weedy pots which I can definitely recycle with new plants and that will be a good quick fix to ensure the garden has something of interest over the winter.  

 I was also pleased to find a large mint shrub in the garden, so I plan to dig that up, cut that back and put it into a couple of small pots on the patio.  It has gone to seed for now, but that will come back to life next spring/ summer and be useful for minted potatoes!

Amanda's greyhound is a very lively boy and loves digging, so there was quite a trench in the middle of the garden, although not so evident from this photo.

I've used a whole bag of compost to fill the hole and need to decide what to do with this area.  I've compacted it for now, to try and stop any more digging, but I think it will probably need at least one more bag of compost to level everything out.  My first thought on seeing the hole was that it would probably be ideal for a pond or a water feature, although not so ideal when you put a large greyhound into the mix!

As this was the first time I have been out gardening for someone else - rather than tending my own garden - I very quickly realised what I did and didn't need, so made copious notes while working.  These are a few tools of my trade, although not nearly enough.

 This little chap was serenading me as I worked.

And this photo shows an injury - longer gauntlets are needed for clearing out a large patch of stinging nettles!

Time spent working in this garden today:  2.5 hours

Jobs completed:  chopped down trees and suckers; pulled up teasels and stinging nettles; dug up weeds; bagged up rubbish and left by back gate; filled hole in lawn with compost.

Jobs for future visit:  saw down remaining trees and also branches to put into bags; add more compost to hole in lawn; dig out more weeds; empty the plant pots; dig up mint and plant into pot; take shears to cut grass before lawn mowing can commence again next year; buy grass seeds and sow into seed trays to make small clumps of grass to plant out in garden; dig up excess foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) and forget me nots (Myosotis sylvatica) from my own garden to plant in pots for interest; sow tulip, iris and daffodil bulbs in pots for spring interest. 

Note:  not all these jobs will be done in just one visit!